The
descendents of Tsinne and Leib Effron of Amdur is by far the largest of the
Efron family trees, and is the subject of all of Volume I of the Efron Family
History. The earliest ancestors of this family are identified in two family
histories. First, in Sam Effron’s “The Saga of the Effron Family,” a brief, a
genealogy of the descendants of Motte (Mordecai) Effron. Motte’s mother was
Tsinne of Amdur, according to this account. [GEN029-SD]

In
the chapter “My Family,” in Yedidia Effron’s book, Amdur, Mayn Geboyrn
Shtetl (Amdur, my Hometown) he also identifies Motte, son of Tsinne, as his
ancestor.. In both of these sources there are mentions of other Efron families
and relations, sometimes elucidating the larger picture of this branch of
Effrons and usually just a hint that beckons the family historian to dig in
deeper.

This
is how Sam Effron of Poughkeepsie introduced his “Saga of the Effron Family:

During
the beginning of the reign of Alexander I, the czar of Russia, there was a
small town in the government (gubernie) of Grodno called Amdur.

The
population of this town was mostly Jewish, and surrounding it were many
villages. The Peasants, who lived on the farms on the outskirts of the town,
would come into the town to trade, to see what was for sale and to buy what
they needed.

There
was in that town of Amdur, a man by the name of Motte -- his mother's name was
Tsine. Tsine, mother of Motte, had three more sons, namely, Cheikel, Chaim
Lozer and Afraim. (It is possible that the three sons at the census taking
adopted different family names instead of Efron, as we do not know much about
them).

About
that time, in the beginning of the 19th century, the Jewish people had no
family names, but they were called after the father's or the mother's or the
wife's name; therefore Motte was known as Motte Tsine's, after his mother. But
during that period, the government decided that every family should have a second
name on record. So I imagine a census was taken and each family was given a
name (this is the census referred to above). I suppose the person who answered
the questionnaire of the census taker was called Efraim (his first name), so
they shortened it and called the family Efron, and that is the beginning of the
large EFFRON family.
[GEN029-SD]

Sam
Effron’s genealogy has been an inspiration and established the earliest
generations of the Amdur Effron’s family tree. This was written in the 1950s,
however, and he did not have access to the sources now available for research.
That genealogy is used in the next several chapters as an outline for the
family history of the Efron family of Amdur. It has been enlarged upon and
clarified when necessary.

In
Sam Effron’s genealogy the head of the family is a woman named Tsine (also
spelled Tsinne, Tzina, Cina, etc.) and her husband is not even mentioned. That
his name is Leib was determined from a 1784 census entry and an 1818 Revision
List entry for their son, Ephraim (more below). Another thing worth noting is
the introductory line which says that two of the sons seem to have the same
name: Chaim and Cheikel Lazar. Cheikel is a nickname for Chaim, and therefore
it appears that two brothers have the same name. Since there is no definite
documentation for this Lazar, there is no verification of Sam’s information.
The existence of Chaim, on the other hand, is well documented.

Leib
of Amdur, b. approx 1767, d. after 1791, but before 1809, married Tsinne
Tsinowitsis of Amdur, b. approx. 1767. They are listed in the 1784 Polish
census for Indura, with one child, Chaim. [CENMISC007] Some of their descendants took the name
Efron, and some apparently took the family name “Tsinnes.” She Came from the
family “Tsinowitsis,” according to the book about Amdur. There is a family in
the Grodno area by the name of Tsinowitz, which lived in the town of Jedwabne.
So this may be her place of origin.

In
Yedidia Efron’s book, Amdur, Mayn
Geboyrn Shtetl,
he says that Tsinne came from the family Tsinowitsis, who lived in or around
Bialystok. A well-known family is that of Tsinowitz (Cinowitz, etc.), with
origins in the town of Yedwabne (Jedwabne) -- near Bialystok. One descendant
of that family was a Tsinne Tsinowitz who was born long after the Efron
matriarch of that name. Tsinne Tsinowitz of Yedwabne married Moshe Goelman. One
of their children, Irving, married Aneis Effron of Kentucky – see page –. More
information about the Goelman family can be found in the translation of the
Jedwabne Yizkor book on www.JewishGen.org .

In
an email from a member of the Goelman family, Ty Rogers, I learned that the
father of Tzina Rochel (TZINOWTIZ) GOELMAN, b. 1863 in Yedwabne, was Yankel.
Yankel’s mother was Malke, and her second husband (the given name of the first
husband, TZINOWITZ, is unknown), Nachum RADZIK, was Ty’s ancestor. According to
Ty, Moshe and Tzina Rochel had eight children, and Izzy (Irving) was one of
them. Another child was Hersh Tzinowitz (Cynowicz), who was born in Jedwabne, became a
lawyer in Vilna, and was one of the recipients of a visa, in 1940, from the
Japanese counsel, Chiune Sugihara. Hersh wrote an article in the Jedwabne
yizkor book that traces the family tree. According to him, the Tzinowitz family
originated in Tykocin, near Bialystok.

Goelman
family of Yedwabne: Moshe, Zina (nee Tzinowitz), son Gershon and his wife, and
grandson Eliezer (Courtesy Ty Rogers, from the Jedwabne Yiskor book)

“Besides
the Tzinowitzes who went to Jedwabne, there was also a cluster of Tzinowitzes
in Zambrow. The two groups are probably related to each other but I am
probably related only to the Jedwabne ones who were descendants of my g-g-g
grandmother Malka. (As I mentioned, I am descended from Malka and her
second husband, not her first husband who was a Tzinowitz.)” (Ty Rogers) The
Tzinowitz family is also discussed in Chapter 14, in the context of Aneis
Effron’s marriage to Irving Goelman.

No
oral history or documentation make clear the name of Tsinne’s husband, but the
1818 Revision List (census) record for Ephraim Efron, son of Leib [CENRS001] appears to be referring to this Leib.
In September, 2003, I received copies of the 1784 census of the town of Amdur.
There was only one Tsinne in that list, and her husband’s name was Leib This
made sense, since many of Tsinne’s descendant’s had the name Leib, its Hebrew
equivalent, “Aryeh,’ or the formal Hebrew name from which Leib is a nickname,
“Yehuda.”

Why
would one person have three names? The three names Yehuda (Hebrew) Aryeh (Hebrew
for Lion) and Leib (German for Lion) are all equivalent and are often used
together. Yehuda was one of the sons of the Biblical Patriarch Jacob. Like
Jacob’s other sons, Yehuda is given a blessing where he is compared to an
animal. For Yehuda, it is a lion. The Hebrew word for Lion is Aryeh, and the
Yiddish word is Leib.

According
to Jewish tradition, children are often named after recently deceased direct
ancestors. To see if this makes sense for Leib and his offspring, an analysis
of Tsinne’s grandchildren named Leib shows the prevalence of the name:

Yudel, b. 1837,
son of Ephraim

Leyba, b. 1809,
son of Chaim

Ephraim-Leibel,
a grandson of Motte

Leyba, son of
Elya

The
above list also gives a range of years, prior to which Leib must have died. Children
were not named after living ancestors. Therefore, Leib probably died: prior to
1809, when Leyba, son of Chaim was born. Leib lived until at least 1791, when
his son Motte was born.

Tsinne
was born approximately 1767, based on the known birth dates of her
grandchildren The earliest was born in 1808 and the latest in 1856. It is
interesting that there are so few descendants named Tsinne. She must have
lived at least a moderately full life; at least long enough for her children to
be known as “Tsinne’s.”

According
to Sam Effron, there are four known children of Leib and Tsinne:

CHAIM
CHEIKEL TSINNE’S. See Chapter --- According to the letter written by Harmon
Ephron [GEN022­-SD], Chaim Cheikel
Ephron, his father, “was named after an uncle who was a famous rabbi and a
great biblical and Hebrew scholar.” This suggests that this Chaim Cheikel
Ephron might be named after Chaim Cheikel of Amdur, a famous Hasidic leader.
Cheikel of Amdur was b. 1730, and d. 1787. However, that is unlikely. For one,
he was a Hasid, and the Efrons were Mitnagidim – two opposing schools of
Judaism. More likely, Harmon Ephron’s father was almost certainly named after
Chaim Cheikel Tsinne’s. Hermann Efron of Frankfurt was born in 1855, was a
great-grandson of Chaim Cheikel Tsinn’es and was probably named for him; Harmon
Ephron’s father was born right around the same time.

LEIZER
TSINNE’S. b. approx. 1786, based on his other siblings’ birth dates. He was
not listed in the 1784 census, so probably he was born after that date. Nothing
is known about him. Sam Effron indicates in his genealogy that there was a
“Chaim Lozar.” But Sam Effron also says that there is a son named Cheikel. [GEN029-SD] Cheikel and
Chaim are the same name (like James and Jim), so somewhere there may be an
error in the oral history of the family. There are many descendants named
Leizer from various Efron family trees, and so many in the earliest generations
that I would venture to guess that there was a Leizer who was an ancestor of
Leib or Tsinne of Amdur, progenitors of this family tree.. Leizer Tsinne’s
children are not known, but there are many descendants with the name Leizer so
it is very possible that he is the ancestor of many Efron descendants.

EPHRAIM
TSINNE’S. See Chapter --Very little information is known about his family,
although there are probably many missing branches.

Ephraim
Efron , b. 1790, married Ghenya, b. 1790. In 1818 he is registered to Amdur. [RS001] I believe that he may be the source of
some of the Bialystok and Amdur area Efron families which have not yet been
tied into the Tsinne’s family.

> Yehuda
Efron, b. 1827. In 1840 he is registered to Amdur. [RS003] This may be the same individual as
Leib Efron of Grodno, whose children came to the US (the names Leib and Yehuda
are equivalent). See page ---.

MOTTE
TSINNE’S. See Chapter --. This family is very well known, thanks primarily to
the efforts of Sam Effron, Ed Effron, Julio Mazo and others.

Motte
had five sons and three daughters. The sons were Mashe, Yankel, David, Gdalie
and Shevach; the daughters were Shifre, Etche, and Cunne. [GEN029-SD]

The
hand drawn family tree done by Max Effron of Arizona [GEN013-SD] agrees with
the names of the children of Motte Tsinne’s listed by Sam Effron [GEN029-SD], but it is not
known whether either received the information from the other. It seems likely
that there was communication between the two.

The
Lowenstein Genealogy says that Motte Tsinne’s was born in 1791, but no source
of that information is known. Bill Lowenstein (see . --) also shows that
Etchee is the daughter to whom Avrom Ezra, the Rabbi, was married. Likewise,
Lowenstein shows that Shifre was a granddaughter, not a daughter of Motte
Tsinne’s. Based on the ages of his sons, and the earliest grandchild to bear
the name of Motte (Mordecai) [RS012; RS013;
RS082; RS085],
Motte Tsinne’s birth date is likely between 1785 and 1826.

The
daughters
[of Motte Tsinne’s] were Shifre, Eche and Cunne. [GEN029-SD] The family
trees of Eche (Haiche) and Cunne (Kuna) are known (see below), but nothing is
known about Motte’s daughter Shifre. An analysis of women named “Shifre” could
lead to her family if there was a marriage between a known branch and Shifre’s
(unknown) branch. There are some entries in the Amdur Revision List of 1858
for Shifre, but it would be conjecture to guess which one is the same as this
Shifre.

Other
families with the name EFRON, regardless of spelling, may or may not be related
to this family. Those other families, who are identified in Volume II of this
genealogy, can fit into one of the following categories, though we don’t know
which category is correct for any given Efron family:

The
family is unrelated, and whatever the source of the name EFRON might be,
this family acquired the name for the same reason

The
family is unrelated, and acquired the name EFRON for a reason other than
the reason the name was acquired by the Amdur Efrons.

The
family is related, but the name was acquired through a wife, so there is
no common male ancestor between that family and the Amdur Efron branch

The
family is related, and the family in question has a common male ancestor
as the Amdur Efron family.

A
family that probably fits into category four was identified in the 1858
Revision List for the City of Grodno. They are almost certainly related because
they lived very close to the family of Chaim Efron, son of Ephraim Tsinne’s,
based on their proximity to that family in the revision list enumeration. Their
connection to the other Amdur families is unknown. In fact, the given names are
unusual, or just plain unknown, in the Amdur Efron constellation